Denis W. Martin, Priests of 1928, Brisbane, 2003, pp 4-8:
Jerry O'Leary

People are nearly always hand picked to stand or sit in the front row of a photo. The rest simply 'fall in'.

First in the front row is Jeremiah O'Leary and a good one to start with too. He was said to have been a very capable priest and 'a real goer'. Facts bear this out.

Having arrived in Brisbane in 1900, a product of All Hallows, where he was ordained and a year spent with William Cashman in Vienna to study German which was a policy of Archbishop Dunne's, he assisted at Bulimba, Nundah, St Stephen's and the Valley.

It was in 1913 that he got his break when the new Coadjutor Duhig appointed him Parish Priest of the District of Coorparoo and Ipswich Rd (Annerley). These were the first of the suburban districts for which he decided to provide churches. Within a few months of the appointment, O'Leary had a churchschool blessed and opened at Coorparoo and by mid 1914 a similar one was opened at Annerley. And what is more, by the opening dates, all the debts had been paid off. It was a great effort. (As I write the old school at Coorparoo as it became is being demolished). Then a fine presbytery was built at Coorparoo.

Now how did he pay off the debts so quickly? The enterprising Jerry published a book A Catholic Miscellany and a fine pictorial of the development of the Archdiocese it is. It was financially a great success and copies were to be found before long in every second Catholic home. After World War I, Fr O'Leary's mind turned towards building a more fitting church at Coorparoo but a holiday trip to Ireland was not publicised. How was he to raise the money?

Another book was the obvious answer. Catholic Progress in the Archdiocese of Brisbane 1912-1919 was hot off the press. This surely found favour with the progressive young Archbishop as the book was a c.v. of his first seven years. But, truth to tell, these two books are a remarkable record of the history of the Church in southern Queensland and it is doubtful if any other diocese in Australia ever produced anything of their calibre.

All the older priests and not in this Diocese alone, knew the latter book as Suppressio Veri. How this came about is a story that constitutes 'clergy lore'. This is the origin. At one of the last priests' retreats at Dara, the solemnities were over and the final hours of wining and dining, speech making and story telling were in progress. The good-humoured Jerry rose to his feet to tell a funny concerning the Parish Priest of Rosalie, Dean [William] Lee, for they were always having digs at one another. He said that recently after a Sunday Mass, a pious old parishioner had come round to the sacristy to ask 'Who was the lovely priest at Rosalie, the one with the horn-rimmed testicles?'

Some order was restored only when Dean Lee stood up to retaliate. He congratulated Jerry O'Leary on his latest publication and then wished him bon voyage for he had just heard of the proposed trip home. In buying one of the books he thought he was helping the building fund at Coorparoo. He therefore proposed that henceforth the book be known as 'Suppressio Veri by Jerry O'Leary!'

In 1925 the fine new St James' at Coorparoo was built. Along with Laidley and Bulimba it bears the Jefferson style of architecture employed by Mr Marks of Toowoomba. Fr O'Leary had to have a church 'just like Laidley'.

By the leg of the presbytery table near his place Jerry O'Leary kept a bottle of sherry for himself alone. Then he became aware of the fact that someone else was getting at it, perhaps one of the curates. He decided he would fix that, so he peed into it to replenish the volume and waited. Some little time after he enjoyed the trifle so much at lunch that he complimented Minnie the housekeeper when she came in to clear the dishes. She responded, 'Oh yes Father, I put a little more sherry in than usual.'!

He was also fanatical about the ringing of the bells at the elevation during Mass, a custom emphasised by the Parish Priest of his old home town in Ireland, Canon Sheehan of Doneraile (the writer who nearly became Bishop of Lismore, NSW). However, when no altar server turned up, the problem was overcome in one of three ways: he sometimes tied a little bell to his ankle and simply had to shake the leg; or occasionally he banged the communion plate on the altar with one hand while he held up the host with the other; and at other times he was able to kick the sanctuary bell with his heel.

When behind the wheel of a car, road rules meant nothing. Because the police knew him, a blind eye was turned. Even at busy Stone's Comer he never stopped for a tram; he just swung out to bypass it on the wrong side of the road.

Unfortunately as Fr O'Leary aged he grew more eccentric. The curates were forbidden to go to the toilet before morning Mass as they had 'to learn to control themselves'. Naturally they had to go to the Archbishop about this matter.

Towards the end he became a rather pathetic figure as he lived in one of the back rooms of the double-storeyed presbytery. The Augustinian Fathers had been given the parish in 1952.

After 40 years at Coorparoo, Jerry O'Leary died on 6th October 1953. He was buried at Nudgee, and lies under a tall Celtic cross with the words 'Thy will be done' and 'Revd. Jeremiah O'Leary PPFV, First Parish Priest of Coorparoo and builder of St James' Church.'

(Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Martin.)